Saints & Holy Relics Speaking Presentation, 8/29/2017: Sacred Heart Church, Waianae

The Sacred Heart Church in Waianae (Oahu) once again welcomed my Guadalupe House Lay-Ministry and the hallowed pilgrim visit of various Saints and Blesseds. I was re-invited by the parish’s RCIA group to conduct another presentation about Saints and Relics for their faith community, particularly for a group of teens and adults preparing for their Sacraments of Initiation.  This was my third presentation at this church and despite being a weeknight, an unexpected heavy downpour, and even a flash flood warning, the turnout for the presentation was fantastic.

The Holy Relics of various Saints &

Blesseds displayed during my ministry's

Saints & Relics Presentation at Sacred

Heart Church, Waianae.

This time around the Saints/Blesseds I featured in my presentation and, whose sacred relics were present, were, as follows: St. Bernadette Soubirous (bone), St. Benedict Joseph Labre (bone), St. Joseph (cloak), Bl. Maria Repetto (bone), Our Lady (veil), Bl. Peter To Rot (leather belt), Bl. Rolando Rivi (hair), Ven. Solanus Casey (clothing) [soon to be beatified in November 2017], St. Teresa of Calcutta (clothing), St. Therese of Lisieux (bone) and her parents – Sts. Louis & Zelie Martin (bones).

As usual with my Saints & Relics Presentations, I emphasized to my audience members the diverse paths of holiness and/or corresponding charisms of each holy role model… and how ALL of us are more than capable of following in their footsteps to attain a degree of personal sanctity… and, eventually, our very own salvation.  I think the group got the message and the response appeared enthusiastic.

Waianae parishioners venerating the relics.

After the talk ended I was pleasantly surprised that most of the feedback I received was from the youth in attendance. Several teens approached me to express how much they enjoyed learning about the Sainthood Process… as well as the individual lives of the various Saints/Blesseds I spoke about. One girl seemed almost choked-up (in a good way) as she spoke to me, while another person - a young man still pending baptism – declared that he was eager to be baptized and become a Catholic!  I later saw them at the display altar viewing and praying before the relics I brought. It was evident the Saints/Blesseds had again succeeded in touching hearts for Jesus in Waianae… and they even left us with a tangible sign of their presence – Escarchas!

Fine shiny flakes of gold, red, and sky-blue appeared on a table, on and around my electronic equipment, which the RCIA members excitedly collected with clear tape.  I also saw Escarchas on the floor around the altar.  For me it was visible confirmation that the gate of Heaven had opened and members of the "Celestial Court” had come through to bless us in a special way this evening -  the icing on the cake for all of us... and we were grateful and awed.

... and I am also grateful to the RCIA family of the Sacred Heart Parish for their endearing warmth and generosity. May Our Lady and the Saints/Blesseds always guide and bless each of us for the good of our souls and the good of our Church… and above all - for the greater glory of God!  Amen.

Monthly Messages from the Queen of Peace of Medjugorje: August 2017

"Dear Children!  Today I am calling you..."

Our Lady's Monthly Message to the World on August 25th: 

   "Dear children! Today I am calling you to be people of prayer.  Pray until prayer becomes a joy for you and a meeting with the Most High.  He will transform your hearts and you will become people of love and peace.  Do not forget, little children, that Satan is strong and wants to draw you away from prayer.  You, do not forget that prayer is the secret key of meeting with God.  That is why I am with you to lead you.  Do not give up on prayer. Thank you for having responded to my call."

Our Lady's Special Message to Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo on August 2nd:

   "Dear children, according to the will of the Heavenly Father, as the mother of Him who loves you, I am here with you to help you to come to know Him and to follow Him.  My Son has left you His foot-prints to make it easier for you to follow Him.  Do not be afraid. Do not be uncertain, I am with you.  Do not permit yourselves to be discouraged because much prayer and sacrifice are necessary for those who do not pray, do not love and do not know my Son.  You help, by seeing your brothers in them.  Apostles of my love, hearken to my voice within you, feel my motherly love.  Therefore pray, pray by doing, pray by giving, pray with love, pray in work and thoughts, in the name of my Son.  All the more love that you give, so much more of it you will also receive.  Love which emanates from love illuminates the world.  Redemption is love, and love has no end.  When my Son comes to the earth anew, He will look for love in your hearts.  My children, many are the acts of love which He has done for you.  I am teaching you to see them, to comprehend them and to thank Him by loving Him and always anew forgiving your neighbors.  Because to love my Son means to forgive.  My Son is not loved if the neighbor cannot be forgiven, if there is not an effort to comprehend the neighbor, if he is judged.  My children, of what use is your prayer if you do not love and forgive?  Thank you."

First Saturday Parish Rosary at St. Anthony of Padua Church, 8/5/2017

Turn your lemons into lemonade through faith in God and prayerful cooperation with Divine Grace. This was the lesson I relayed to our participants at today's First Saturday Rosary for Peace. It was a message inspired by the life of the Saint of the Month I talked about - Bl. Maria Pilar Izquierdo Albero, an obscure Spanish Founder.

              

From Left to Right:  Bl. Maria Pilar

Izquierdo Albero, today's display altar,

and a bone relic of the beatified

Spanish foundress.

For readers not familiar with her, this Blessed's life reads as one seeming misfortune after another - early in her life she fell from a tram and broke her pelvis, which led to her being bedridden for 12 long years; along with the immobility came ulcers all over her body (bedsores?); complete blindness and partial deafness reportedly followed. The invalid was miraculously, and instantaneously, healed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1939, and set about founding a charitable group of nuns.  

All went well for two years until misunderstanding, slander, and discord set in among her community members, which forced the founder out of her own fledgling congregation. Things then went from bad to worse - Bl. Maria Pilar soon broke a leg in another accident, and was also diagnosed with stomach cancer! She died from the disease at only 39-years-old. As already mentioned, her life, it seemed, was one episode of bad luck after another... but it was the manner in which she consistently responded to these setbacks that made her an inspiration... and eventually raised her to the glory of the altar.

You see, rather than wallowing in misery and/or self-pity, or falling into despondency, as most people may easily have been prone to do, Bl. Maria Pilar instead heroically resigned herself to the Lord's will; accepting her physical and moral suffering, as a way of attaining closer union with Christ, and as a sacrifice for the success of her mission. In essence, she transformed her pain into active prayer, and by doing so, effectively turned her life's "lemons" into lemonade.

Various photos of some of the escarchas that
appeared on both my hands and wrists.

Incidentally, the Blessed's efforts did not go unrewarded from God - she was eventually favored with many extraordinary gifts: Bilocation; Ecstasies and Visions of Jesus, Mary, and Saints; Prophecy; and the Stigmata. And in the end, her life's work also experienced a revival, as a completely new congregation - the Missionary Work of Jesus and Mary - that was carried on by a small group of the Blessed's loyal nuns. The congregation still flourishes in Spain and other parts of the world.

So today's lesson from our saintly bio was highly encouraging, I feel, and relevant to just about everyone. We all have lemons that sometimes sour our personal lives; some people have more than others (many participants chuckled when I mentioned the fact)... but it's all the more opportunities to make sweet spiritual lemonade, if we can just follow Bl. Maria Pilar's lead!

On a side note, escarchas made a return appearance today. They were manifested as beautiful sky-blue, green, pink, and gold flakes, as we prayed our Rosary. I sensed the Holy Spirit's powerful presence in the chapel and I'd like to think the escarchas were symbolic of divine "sugar" being sprinkled from above to encourage us to start transforming our own sourness into sweet "heavenly lemonade".  God is good.

Our next First Saturday Rosary will be prayed on September 2nd, beginning at 4:25pm in the Day Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua Church, Kailua.  All are welcome to participate.